Gardening, both for food production and recreation, is becoming increasingly popular. Greater numbers of gardeners are utilizing small greenhouses to protect plants from inclement weather while still ensuring continued exposure of the growing plants to sunlight. The use of greenhouses for home gardening is well known. Such greenhouses come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Greenhouse window boxes are one popular version of a home greenhouse. These are particularly well-adapted for installation in a double-hung window frame. Unfortunately, these sorts of greenhouses are small and often unsightly in home use applications.
More predominant are elaborate rigid-frame structures that sit on the ground and over which clear membranes are stretched to obtain greenhouse effects. Such devices, even when claiming to be portable, are generally bulky, labor-intensive, and difficult to move. Such devices usually rely upon rigid, as opposed to flexible, frame elements and generally require the use of tools for assembly and disassembly.
At the other end of the spectrum are greenhouse devices that, while portable, are so flimsy as to require frequent repair and replacement. A common instance of this type of device uses U-shaped wire frame elements to straddle one or more plants. A transparent, plastic film is then attached to the wire frame elements. Such structures have difficulty surviving even moderate weather conditions and are easily damaged in one or more of the set-up, take-down, or storage processes.
It would therefore be desirable to have a greenhouse device that is lightweight and portable, yet strong enough to endure the rigors of severe weather and repeated set-up, take-down, and storage cycles.
Further, in the field of collapsible, portable structures, many existing designs contemplate usage conditions spanning relatively brief time periods: overnight, a weekend, or perhaps a week or two at most. This appears to be the product of such devices having developed in recreational fields such as hunting and camping. Thus, while devices in these fields are often suitable for their own purposes, such designs reveal shortcomings when adapted for prolonged periods of use, as in the case of greenhouses, which are often used for weeks or months at a time. Some of these shortfalls include material decay from prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation, as well as having edges and seams that may invite the collection of debris in the course of prolonged use.
It is therefore desirable to have a collapsible, portable structure suitable for repeated set-up and take-down cycles yet suitable to endure prolonged seasonal exposure to the sun and other elements without substantial deterioration, decay, or accumulation of debris.